conlangfandomcom-20200223-history
Charangae
/ General information Charangae (tʃäɾängæ; literally mediator speech) is the native language of the Hkenunengae (hke̞nune̞ngæ; literally mediator people). As the name suggests, the Hkenunengae are a trading people, with many expert merchants and mediators due to their central location in the Ngaehbeha (ngæhbe̞xä; literally gold exchange) trade route. The Hkenunengae live on an archipelago in the middle of a vast ocean, making them the only stop for merchants to drop anchor in on their way to the other end of the ocean. Thus the Charangae language is agglutinative to focus on the word, as many foreign words make their way into the lexicon. Phonology Consonants Vowels A dipthong can be formed between æ and i. Alphabet To be implemented when I have time to transfer to digital Romanization For the sake of convenience, the following IPA symbols shall be referred to as such: Phonotactics The standard syllable structure is CV, with C being a consonant or consonant cluster, and V being a vowel. In this case a "none" vowel still counts as a vowel. The only consonant clusters involve the consonants n, l, h, and the consonants d, b, t, g, k. The second group of consonants cannot exist without one of the three first group consonants preceding them. The consonants t and k are the only consonants eligible for a "none" vowel. The "none" consonant clusters can only be used at the end of a root/affix. The standalone consonants are as follows: m/n, l, h/x, zh, ch, f/ɸ, ŋ, and ɾ. The slashes indicate that the two consonants are allophones (only outside of consonant clusters), the left consonant can only be used at the beginning of a word, while the right consonant can only be used in the middle of the word. The declensions or conjugations attached are to be ignored in this rule. The particle nae and the interrogative demonstratives are always pronounced with an n sound. Adjectives are only allowed to have one syllable, and when forming compound words, the modifying root comes after the modified root and must be in diminutive form. Tones/Pitch Accent There are five tones, and they are only used on adjectives which are constrained to one syllable only. The rest of the words use a pitch accent system for a stress pattern, with the syllables sporting a consonant cluster getting the high pitch accent and the rest being low. The n, l, or h does not receive a pitch accent in this rule. If two consonant clusters are adjacent to one another, the sonorant n or l in between shall be lower pitched to provide contrast. If the second consonant cluster has an unvoiced h, then the syllable is not pitch accented. The five tones are: neutral, high, rising, dipping, and falling. The neutral tone is said with a normal voice, while the high tone is said with a higher pitched voice like in Mandarin. The rising tone rises like the Cantonese rising tone, and the dipping tone can be compared to the Mandarin dipping tone, except it is always fully pronounced. The falling tone is identical to the Mandarin falling tone. The tones shall be referred to as: 1 - Neutral 2 - High 3 - Rising 4 - Dipping 5 - Falling Grammar Word Order The canonical word order for Charangae is Subject Object Verb, but the order can be changed while retaining the same meaning because of the case identifying prefixes for nouns. Nouns The nouns are usually multisyllabic to contrast the monosyllabic adjectives. The are declined in this manner: (case indicator) (root) (number indicator). With each case indicator there is a different location the noun takes in a sentence. The root for person/entity mundae, and the present progressive conjugated copula htichindifu shall be used to illustrate the mechanics of declension. In instances where the coda is unusable, the present progressive conjugated verb htichinbaeina shall be used, the root of which means to give. For possession, the generic name lkanaht will be used. Pronouns The pronouns differentiate by gender and by person. There are three persons: first, second, and third. The pronouns are also subject to declension. Verbs The verbs are also multisyllabic to contrast the monosyllabic adjectives. They are conjugated in this manner: (tense, aspect, and polarity) (root) (mood). The conjugation shall be illustrated with the verb root nbaeina, meaning to give. To use a verb as a noun, remove conjugation and attach the prefix ri to the root. Tense/Aspect/Polarity To change the polarity to negative just add zhaei to the end of the conjugation. Mood The generic name lkanaht, the noun root mundae meaning person/entity, and the conjunction lbe meaning if are used to assist in the illustration along with the aforementioned verb root. For the potential mood, the la is extended in a similar manner and tone in which Cantonese places an ah after sentences. Copula The only copula of Charangae is ndifu, which is akin to desu in Japanese or to be in English. Demonstratives The demonstratives in Charangae are treated like adjectives in that the monosyllabic rule is applied and tones exist. The demonstrative is placed preceding the modified word. They are divided in Proximal, Medial, Distal, and Universal categories, changing with the two genders and quantity. The quantity grew from the Hkenunengae people's trading habits. The interrogative words are always pronounced with n instead of m. Conjunctions The conjunctions are attached at the end of the phrase. Adjectives Adjectives in Charangae are monosyllabic only, and employ the tone system. The adjectives precede the word they modify. There is no limit or order to which attributive adjectives may be attached to a word. Adverbs Adverbs are mostly derived from adjectives by attaching na to the end of the adjective. There are some adverbs not derived from adjectives and vice versa. Particles There are only four particles in Charangae: zhu, chuŋe, hkara, and nae. Particle Zhu The particle zhu facilitates a noun describing a noun. The noun being modified holds the declensions. For example: hahga (gold) mundae (person/entity) ndifu (copula) hahga zhu ŋemundae htindifu The person is gold-like. Particle Chuŋe The particle chuŋe facilitates listing, similar to the English and. The last word in the list holds the declensions. For example: lkanaht(generic name) hahga (gold) mundae (person/entity) ndichi (to own) ŋelkanaht naehahgaraluhk chuŋe mundaeraluhk htindichi Lkanaht owns much gold and many people. Particle Hkara The particle hkara facilitates quotation. The particle precedes the quote and the phrase must have the verb to say. For example: lkanaht (generic name) hahga (gold) mundae (person/entity) ndifu (copula) hgaŋe (to say) ŋelkanaht hkara hahga zhu ŋemundae htindifu htehgaŋe Lkanaht said the person is gold-like. Particle Nae The particle nae is attached to the end of a phrase to give it an interrogative meaning. It is the only particle with a tone, and that tone is the falling tone. For example: hahga (gold) mundae (person/entity) ndifu (copula) hahga zhu ŋemundae htindifu nae5 Is the person gold-like? Numbers The numbers in Charangae do not require any counter words, and are subject to declension. When counting other nouns, they require the use of the particle zhu to link the two words. The numbers can be constructed in a similar manner to Chinese. To express a fraction, one must place the numerator, then the number of times halved or thirded. For example: 1/4 one two half chuhbe zheht hbu 2/9 two three third zheht fa fahbe To express other fractions, one must put the denominator number after the literary form of half. For example: 1/7 one half seven chuhbe hbunu chalt Vocabulary Example text Category:Languages